Achieving sustainable lifestyles?: Socio-cultural dispositions, collective action and material culture as problems and possibilities
2012 (English)In: Local Environment: the International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, ISSN 1354-9839, E-ISSN 1469-6711, Vol. 17, no 3, p. 369-386Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
This article focuses on the everyday life of ordinary households, their behaviour and responsibility with regard to environmental and sustainability issues. Previous research has shown that there is a gap between what households perceive as ideologically correct behaviour and what they actually do. It is argued here that socio-cultural dispositions, material culture and collective action need to be included in future strategies for creating more sustainable lifestyles. The investigation is based on a study of families participating in a year-long project in which the families learned to live in a more environmentally friendly way. In the study of the families, material culture interacted with routines, family relations and citizenship in a reproducing manner. The lifestyle changes were gender-biased, with the women as driving forces but also bearing most of the extra workload. From early life experiences, garbage sorting stood out as an especially powerful tool for a change towards more sustainable lifestyles.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2012. Vol. 17, no 3, p. 369-386
Keywords [en]
Sustainable lifestyles, environment, garbage sorting, eco- and fair trade-labelled products, socio-cultural dispositions, material culture, collective action, Karlstad, Sweden
National Category
Other Social Sciences
Research subject
Environmental Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-13152DOI: 10.1080/13549839.2012.665865OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-13152DiVA, id: diva2:524515
2012-05-022012-05-022017-12-07Bibliographically approved